Mom on the Run--Woman of Steele

It’s that time once again.  2015 is drawing to a close and I find myself reflecting on this past year and making goals for 2016.  Let’s start with the reflection. I cannot believe this year is over already.  Where did it go?  It feels like only yesterday I had just signed up to run my marathon and was dreading the training involved in it.  Now I have completed the training and the marathon!  I am a MARATHONER!!!  Never ever in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be a marathoner.  I never had even thought about it until about a year ago. I am so incredibly thankful for the ability to run.  Running soothes my soul and makes me feel alive.  It gives me a purpose and a reason.  It helps me to be the best wife and mom I can be.  It helps me take on all the challenges of the day, especially teaching middle school students.  It makes me a better, happier, nicer person to be around.   2015 has been quite the year for me.  I have learned so much about myself and wh

So I have been running with my Garmin Vivoactive watch since September.  My husband let me use my Birthday and Christmas money to order it early since my Nike+ had been giving me issues for some time and I knew that the battery wasn’t going to last for my whole marathon.  After a little convincing, he let me order it.   So on Friday, September 11, 2015, my Garmin Vivoactive came in the mail!!    I have been running with a Nike+ Sport watch for over 2 years.  I loved my Nike for quite awhile.  It was everything I needed for running, plus if it failed I had my Runkeeper app to back me up.  Actually I used to run with both until I started running longer distances and the app would make my phone die.  This proved to be a problem when my phone died during a half marathon and my family didn’t see me cross the finish line.  It took us about 20 minutes to find each other and my hubby was freaking out that something had happened to me.  That’s when I knew I had to at least ditch the a

Hello everyone!  It has been quite an awesome and wonderful week here!  I am so thankful for so many things.   Here’s what my workout schedule looked like this week:    Sun--rest Mon--shoulders and arms, plus extra leg work AND a 3 mile run after work Tue--run 6.5 miles Wed--Legs, plus extra leg work (deadlifts, single deadlifts, calf raises, split lunges, reverse leg lifts, and plie squats with calf raises) Thurs--run 10.5 miles Fri--Christmas Day!! Sat--run 10 miles Sun--run 10 miles Yes I actually took a day off on Christmas to enjoy my time with family!  It was so worth it.  My workouts were on point this week and I pushed myself a little harder knowing it was the holiday and that I had extra time.  I’m excited to see what next week will bring since I am off next week also.  I have a plan, but I am also going to make the most of my time with my kiddos.  I’m hoping to get some work done for school as well.  I have lots of ideas for how to spice things up in th

WoW!  It has been a busy week here!  I can proudly say though, that all my Christmas prep is done!  Cookies are all made, Christmas cards are sent, all the shopping is done, and all the presents are wrapped!  I have never been done this early!  I am usually rushing around the few days before Christmas to get everything completed!  I am so happy to be done!  But it has taken a toll and I am exhausted today!  So today is a rest day so that I can put in some killer workouts this week before the joy of the holiday season.  I am happy to say that my ankle feels much better this week and I haven’t had to ice or tape it!  Hopefully my killer workouts this coming week won’t change that!  LOL I upped my miles this week and put in a total of 30 miles on my legs.  I haven’t put that many miles on my legs in a while, probably since marathon training.  It felt good to get out there and run even in frigid temps this week.  My miles this week were as follows: Sunday 10 miles, Tuesday 6.5 miles, T

It has been quite the week! I’ve got some really good workouts in and also had to deal with some pain in my left ankle.  It’s funny because I have no idea how I hurt my ankle.  I really have no idea!  It was fine on Monday and then started to hurt a bit on my run on Tuesday.  Tuesday, it seemed to progressively get worse throughout the day.  I iced it at night and tried to stay off of it as much as I could.  Wednesday was a little better.  I taped it and wore flats to school.  I tried to do as little walking as possible on this day as well.  Thursday’s run was amazing and I had very little pain.  Friday wasn’t too bad either.  It’s in a very weird spot also.  It’s on the inside of my ankle right below that bone that sticks out.  I don’t know if I jarred it running.  I sometimes slip into the ditch in the mornings when cars won’t move over for me.  I don’t know if I’ve done that one too many times and it finally hurts or if it’s something else.  A colleague of mine suggested running on

Santa Hustle 5K 2015 Saturday 12-5-15 8:30 am Maddie and I ran our first 5k together today!  It was so much fun.  We drove up to Milwaukee Friday night to get our packets at Fleet Feet Sports.  Maddie was so excited to get her sweatshirt, santa beard and hat, but most of all she was excited to get her first race bib!  She couldn’t wait to put them on!!  We had a great time at the hotel, looking around at the Christmas decorations, and playing hide and seek with the kids.  I’ll be honest.  We were all acting like kids!!  It was so much fun!! I don’t think I have had this much fun in a while.  I am usually so straight-laced and time-oriented. It was nice to have a weekend that was pure fun and enjoyment.   This girl was so happy to get her first race packet!  She loved going to Fleet Feet to pick it up for herself.  It was the best!  We had to do the standard packet pickup Facebook and Instagram post.   Race Day morning we woke up early to get ready and head to the hotel r

I am so thankful that I am finally feeling better! I still have a cough and some congestion, but overall, I feel a ton better than I did last week at this time! I've had more energy for my workouts and runs, plus Maddie and I are running our first 5K together!!! I can hardly wait!! Tuesday 12-1 I am so in love with running just for fun!  It was amazing to get out there this morning and just run!  I loved not having to reach a certain mileage number because of a training plan and then feeling horrible because I didn’t reach it.  I set out for 6 miles and knew that I could change it at any point and not feel like a failure or that my training was going to suffer because of it.  These are the runs I enjoy the most.  It was a leisurely pace and I had so much fun through all of it.  There were a couple times that I thought maybe I wouldn’t make it 6 miles and I felt a little disappointed about saying that, but I knew that it wasn’t that big of a deal.  I made it my 6 miles and

It's been an interesting weekend and start to the week.  I am finally feeling better today and ready to kill my workouts the rest of this week!  Let's do this! Saturday 11-28 I woke up this morning and felt like crap. So I took some meds and went back to bed.  I thought maybe I would get a run in later, but that never happened.  We ended up getting our Christmas tree instead.  It was a fun family afternoon.   I also got the tutus done for the Santa Hustle that Maddie and I are running in next Saturday!  It’s going to be so much fun!! Aren’t these super cute??  I can’t wait to show off our complete outfits next Saturday!!! Sunday 11-29 I finally felt a little better this morning when I woke up.  I really wanted to head out for a longer run today since I haven’t been out on a longer run since before the marathon.  I had planned for 8 miles, but with the cold weather and still being congested and having a cough, I opted for my usual 5 mile route.  I was rea